Adya shared some of his experience in the “Collective Unconscious” and “Numinous Mysterium”, which happened intensely for about four years starting six years ago. (“The numinous mysterium is deeper than the collective unconscious. In that realm, it is chaotic and the opposites have no structure.” ~ from his notes for the first live session) He mentioned that his understanding of wholeness or unity transformed to an extraordinary degree when he was least expecting it, after he was well versed in living from the ground of being. He mentioned that his many years of spiritual practice kept him clear so that he didn’t get lost in the chaos.

The focus of this retreat is on the end result of this four-year experience: conjoining the opposites. “The symbol of the cross inside the circle represents the opposites being conjoined into a third entity. It is like when two people fall in love, there's the potential to create a third thing called a relationship. What can be born is something greater than the sum of its parts.” ~ from his notes for the first live session

He also mentioned that archetypal symbols can awaken an instinct within the psche that corresponds to something deep within our own being. According to Adya, the symbol of a cross inside a circle, which came to Adya when he was in his teenage years, was a foretelling of his eventual journey.

What seems new or a bit different from his previous teachings is that he now emphasizes on the significance of individual’s awakening: “The individual has cosmic significance because it is the vehicle through which reality can become conscious of itself in its relative, immanent expression in time and space, as well as having the potential to be a living presence of the conjoined unity of the opposites...” ~ from his notes for the first live session

“Life or the source of life becomes conscious of itself through the individual. Human beings have an immense part to play through the recognition and conjoining of the opposites. The significance of a human life is potentially amazing in both its light and its darkness. It can be amazingly enlightening and amazingly darkening.” ~ from his notes for the first live session

When asked “do we have to go through that intense phase at some time our lives?”, Adya’s answer is very simple and clear: “The answer is no, you don’t have to go through what I went through. We each have our own unique journey. And the more that we are dedicated to the one that we have, the better off we are.”

I especially liked the more recent sharing quote "“The individual has cosmic significance because it is the vehicle through which reality can become conscious of itself in its relative, immanent expression in time and space, as well as having the potential to be a living presence of the conjoined unity of the opposites...”

For me it speaks to the sacredness / truth of equilibrium - while opposites can be viewed and experienced as distinctly different perspectives and experiences, without the 'opposite' there would be no perspective of the first state.

I rather love that expression of conjoined unity of the opposites, and await your answer to RT's question, (RT, it makes sense of the 'no temperature except perfect blending (experience of equilibrium) of all potentials of hot and cold', in the light. And why equilibrium = Equilibrium, in several sciences, is the condition of a system in which all competing influences are balanced.)

We do need this vehicle, and a slowed down cogni-sense to experience the segregation of the minutiae of the elements of energy in motion and unfolding experience.

Thank you both. Please allow me to quote part of his answer to a question in this regard:

“One of the important keys to conjoining the opposites is to hold them in conscious experience simultaneously, with neither side being more emphasized than the other. For example, there are two fundamental instincts that anyone will deal with in their spiritual quest. One is the realization, or enlightenment, instinct. It is the instinct toward truth, reality, greater consciousness, inclusiveness, and unity. The other is the Mara instinct. The Mara instinct is toward unconsciousness, denial, separation, and self-centeredness. Of course, there is certainly a time to say no to the Mara instinct. This is part of discriminating truth from illusion, and self-centeredness from selflessness. But there is also a time to conjoin these opposites.

We learn and grow a lot because of Mara, because of suffering. Suffering is a great motivator to elicit the enlightenment instinct. The enlightenment instinct utilizes the Mara instinct to literally force us into greater consciousness. So the enlightenment instinct and the Mara instinct are not so separate. At the same time, we do not want to wallow in the misery of Mara forever. We need to utilize Mara, utilize the suffering in our lives, in order to awaken from the illusions of Mara. As the old Buddhist saying goes, “We come to nirvana by way of samsara.”

When we conjoin these two fundamental instincts within ourselves, something greater than either part is realized. By conjoin, I don’t mean that we are creating something that does not already exist. I mean that we reveal in our direct experience what could be called an indistinct distinction—not just in our mind as a concept, but in our direct experience.

Conjoined opposites are an indistinct distinction, where both the underlying unity, as well as distinct qualities, are maintained, transcended, and united. To give a practical example: When the Zen master Suzuki Roshi was dying of cancer, he told his students that if they should see him suffer, they should not worry about him, because it was just Buddha suffering. If you can truly experience this reality, you have conjoined (revealed) the opposites of suffering and nonsuffering into a greater whole—a greater whole that he called “Buddha.”

How do you do this? By holding any pair of opposites within your awareness simultaneously without opposition, without resistance. Even if you have resistance, you can hold resistance and nonresistance simultaneously in your conscious experience. “You” do not do the conjoining; it happens by itself if you can sustain conscious recognition of the opposites long enough. How long is long enough? You can never know ahead of time. As the old Nike commercial said, “Just do it.”

Along the way, explore the narrative that holds resistance or indulgence in place. Really be honest about your resistance. Don’t resist or judge your resistance—explore its narrative, its conclusions, its belief patterns. Make it the subject of your exploration. We cannot let go of what we are not fully conscious of.”

In addition, from his notes for the first live session:

“
• Conjoining can happen at a personal or psychological level, in relationships with others
or to the environment, in the collective unconscious, and in the deepest ground of being.

• The more the opposites come together, the more sanity you feel. You’re not divided in
your experience. Any resistance will cause massive conflict.”

While Adya makes it clear: "When we awaken—if it’s deep and profound—we realize the nature of reality. There is
not a deeper reality. There is nothing behind it, there’s no further, there’s no more. We’ve come upon the primordial."

Herewith Adya's Definition of Boundless Liberation:

• Boundless liberation grows out of the realization that enlightenment is not a static
or final condition, but forever open-ended and boundless.

• Boundless liberation is a realization that is forever open to the inexhaustible ways that
reality can reveal itself to itself.

• Boundless liberation is freedom from fixation, and therefore freedom from the limitations
that any static form of realization imposes upon reality.

• Boundless liberation is an unconditioned embrace of the paradox of being and
becoming. It is realization that never fixates on any particular realization, view, or
perspective, but remains open to the spontaneous ways that reality realizes and
expresses itself.

• Boundless liberation is therefore free to spontaneously take whatever perspective or point
of view that a given situation calls for, without thinking that that perspective is absolute.

• Boundless liberation acknowledges that enlightenment remains indeterminate, open, and
free from fixation. In this sense, enlightenment itself is empty, meaning that it is empty of
fixation on any single perspective, point of view, or form of description.

• Boundless liberation acknowledges the inexhaustible nature of enlightenment, of reality
realizing more and more of itself.

• Therefore, someone in whom boundless liberation is operating lives in a state of constant
discovery, free from seeking, striving, and attainment.

• Boundless liberation is being able to have both of these fundamental aspects of the
experience of enlightenment—that reality is always whole and complete, and
simultaneously, that that which is whole and complete can forever be realizing itself.

• Boundless liberation is free of seeking, striving, and any effort of attainment. That
wholeness is forever realizing itself, because its nature is infinite. This is a view of
reality that is dynamic, instead of static.

quote
=====
A participant writes:
You said, “Even oneness is an opposite.” This is very hard to see and I feel quite frustrated. What am I? What is truth/reality? Does it look or feel like anything? Is it an ascent or a descent? How can it be known? What can I do, besides giving up total control (laughing)?
Is it not a soft, black, empty fullness that feels like home (Om)?

Dear Friend,
Thank you for your questions. I can understand your frustration. We are so oriented toward truth or reality being a monolithic thing, something that we can wrap our mind around, something that we can pin down. We must, however, retain a humility that knows that our experiences of reality, or our true nature, are our experience of reality. By saying our experience of reality, I mean reality’s experience of itself. And reality transcends all of its experiences of itself, as well as all of our realizations about its nature. This does not mean that our experiences and realizations of reality are not real and valid. They are very real. But reality, or our true nature, is inexhaustible. It is limitless. And in that sense, reality is indeterminate. It is not fixed or monolithic.

When we truly wake up, it is reality waking up to itself. But also, no experience of reality contains the whole of reality. From the perspective of the individual who wants to pin down reality, this is very frustrating. And this illusion that all of reality can be captured in a single experience or insight often persists after awakening. It is a very subtle and pervasive illusion, what I call a very high-level illusion, because it can persist even after having significant insight. We are so deeply conditioned to think about reality in a fixed and final way—something that can be fully grasped in a realization or experience. But no matter how much we want reality to be a static thing, it is not static.

Although every experience of reality will feel complete and total, this is only because when we are experiencing any aspect of reality, we are touching upon the ultimate completeness and wholeness of reality itself. But that completeness is not static, it is not determined. It is inexhaustible. Perhaps the closest description of reality would be inexhaustible completeness. You are that completeness, but that completeness is also inexhaustible. It is ever being itself, and ever becoming itself. Once again, we run into what appears to be conjoined opposites—the apparent opposites of being and becoming. And the nature of our true nature, or reality, is itself always being the reality that it is, and always becoming and disclosing its inexhaustible potentiality.

In our humanness, reality can be experienced as either ascending or descending and as neither ascending nor descending. These are a few ways that reality experiences and discloses itself through the human vehicle. The ascendant experience of reality reveals its transcendent nature, while the descendent experience of reality reveals its manifest nature. Then there are dimensions of reality that are completely beyond ascendance and transcendence. The more of reality that we realize and experience, the more free we become.

When we transition from us as individuals seeking reality to reality experiencing and realizing itself, we leave all goal-oriented spirituality behind. We become reality realizing itself. Then we are finally free of the desire to fixate reality or pin it down to a single experience or perspective. This does not mean that we are completely free of illusion, for high-level illusions persist at every level of realization. And by seeing through the high-level and subtle illusions inherent to every level of enlightenment, we remain ever open to reality realizing and unfolding more of its infinite potential to itself.

"...This online retreat will be a deep dive into the divine ground of being—what it is, how it functions, and what it means to open more deeply to it, both in your direct experience as well as in the rough and tumble of your everyday life. This retreat will be a time to more deeply commit to your spiritual practice while in the midst of your day-to-day lives, explore the nature of the divine ground in your own experience with meditation, contemplative practices and written exercises, and have the opportunity to share your experiences, insights, and challenges with the online community of participants..."

Topics Include:
What Is the Ground of Being?
The Immense Terrain of the Psyche
The Paradoxical Nature of Being
The Root of All Sentient Beings
Going Fully “Down and In” vs. “Up and Out”
Leaving Behind the Goal Orientation of Spirituality
Faith at the Precipice of the Unknown
Engaging in Life from the Truth of Being
The Endless Revelation
When Our Intention Becomes Our Life

Quotes:

“Only when we delve into the deepest parts of our psyche do we get to the divine ground and are able to pull the roots of separation out. We can still have revelations that are only pulling out the tops of the weeds of separation, only to resprout.”

“The divine ground is vast, paradoxical, and unexplainable. By going down and in, we transcend dualities, including the fundamental duality of form and formlessness.”

“One of the things the divine ground shows you through unavoidable experience is that each of us is the focal point through which the totality of life is revealing itself. Totality is engaged in self-exploration. This is not a belief or idea, but a way of experiencing life.”

“When we are in alignment with the spiritual impulse itself, we see that it didn’t originate in the individual ego but in our true nature.”

“The ground of being is functioning through the individual who is looking for its recognition, not the individual who is doing the looking.”

“The paradox is that you are always being the truth of who you are, and always becoming that truth. The more mature your realization, the more these two come together, and it’s a delight!”